Last year we predicted the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we told in advance that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX).
Is Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) a buy right now? Investors who are in the know were getting more bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets improved by 7 recently. Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) was in 51 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistic is 66. Our calculations also showed that BSX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).
In today’s marketplace there are numerous methods stock traders put to use to size up stocks. A couple of the less known methods are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 185.4% since March 2017 (through August 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 79 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .
Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management
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Do Hedge Funds Think BSX Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q2’s end, a total of 51 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 16% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards BSX over the last 24 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) was held by Viking Global, which reported holding $569.4 million worth of stock at the end of June. It was followed by Farallon Capital with a $543.8 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included OrbiMed Advisors, Two Sigma Advisors, and Citadel Investment Group. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Locust Wood Capital Advisers allocated the biggest weight to Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX), around 4.21% of its 13F portfolio. OrbiMed Advisors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 2.99 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to BSX.
As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, initiated the most outsized position in Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX). Balyasny Asset Management had $74.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Rockefeller and KarláKroeker’s Woodline Partners also made a $44.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Brandon Haley’s Holocene Advisors, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, and OrbiMed Advisors.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) but similarly valued. These stocks are Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN), Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE:D), Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN), Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM), Eaton Corporation plc (NYSE:ETN), and Workday Inc (NASDAQ:WDAY). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to BSX’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| REGN | 48 | 1595301 | 9 |
| D | 34 | 1262051 | -5 |
| F | 55 | 2106196 | 6 |
| IBN | 28 | 2473600 | -3 |
| WM | 39 | 3600334 | 7 |
| ETN | 40 | 1062179 | -9 |
| WDAY | 72 | 5187481 | 3 |
| Average | 45.1 | 2469592 | 1.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 45.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2470 million. That figure was $3029 million in BSX’s case. Workday Inc (NASDAQ:WDAY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN) is the least popular one with only 28 bullish hedge fund positions. Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for BSX is 59.3. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 22.9% in 2021 through October 1st and still beat the market by 5.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on BSX as the stock returned 2.4% since the end of Q2 (through 10/1) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Follow Boston Scientific Corp (NYSE:BSX)
Follow Boston Scientific Corp (NYSE:BSX)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
